86th French Championship in Caen

8/21/2011 – The French Chess Championship is taking place from the 14th to the 27th of August 2011. After seven rounds top seed Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is leading, together with Romanian GM Andrei Istratescu. In the women's section the former French Champion Sophie Milliet is a full point ahead of the field. The organisers are delaying the Internet broadcast as an anti-cheating measure.

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French
Chess Championships 2011

The French Chess Championship is taking place from the 14th to the 27th of
August 2011. The venue is the University of Caen, a town located two hours north-west
of Paris, just 15 km inland from the English Channel. Caen is known for its
historical buildings built during the reign of William the Conqueror, who was
buried there, and for the Battle for Caen – heavy fighting that took place
in and around Caen during the Battle of Normandy in 1944, destroying much of
the town.

Caen (pronounced kɑ̃
– with the French nasal) has a long and stormy history. In 1346 King Edward
III of England led his army against the city and sacked it, killing 3,000 of
its citizens and burning much of the merchants' quarter. The city was later
captured by Henry V in 1417 and treated harshly for being the first town to
put up any resistance to his invasion.

The Caen skyline facing the Saint-Pierre Church – photo Wikipedia,
scroll to view full panorama.

The University of Caen was founded in 1432 by John of Lancaster, First Duke
of Bedford. By 1438 it had five faculties, and the foundation was confirmed
by the King of France Charles VII in 1452. On July 7, 1944, the university was
totally destroyed by aerial bombing. Reconstruction began in 1948. The new university
was inaugurated in 1957.

In the French Championship Laurent Fressinet must defend his title against
a strong field, including Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Etienne Bacrot. The rate
of play is 40 moves in 90 minutes, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the
game, with a 30 seconds increment after every move, starting from move one.

There is a delay in the Internet broadcast, which is intended to prevent organised
cheating. We are gratified to see that some organisers are taking heed and implementing
the very simple
procedure which inconveniences nobody but gives the players a sense of security
that was hitherto lacking. Incidentally not a single spectator on the Playchess
server registered that the moves were coming a little later than they had been
played in Caen. One of the reasons that these measures have been implemented
is because you-know-who is playing. But more about that in a separate report.

GMs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Andrei Istratescu started with 4.0/6. Both drew
their round seven games (with black) and now lead together, half a point ahead
of Fressinet, Bacrot and Edouard.

See also

12/30/2017 – The "King Salman World Blitz & Rapid Championships 2017" in Riyadh from Decemer 26th to 30th. At the half way point of the Blitz Championship, the defending champ Sergey Karjakin leads with 9 / 11. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is a half point back followed by Peter Svidler and a trio of Chinese: Wang, Ding and Yu on 8 / 11. In the Women's Pia Cramling has a full point lead with 9½ / 11. Watch live with Rounds 11 to 22 from 12:00 Noon CET (6:00 AM EST) on Saturday with commentary by E. Miroshnichenko & WGM K. Tsatsalashvili.

See also

12/6/2017 – Imagine this: you tell a computer system how the pieces move — nothing more. Then you tell it to learn to play the game. And a day later — yes, just 24 hours — it has figured it out to the level that beats the strongest programs in the world convincingly! DeepMind, the company that recently created the strongest Go program in the world, turned its attention to chess, and came up with this spectacular result.

Video

The introductory position of the Kasparov Gambit can occur after 1 d4,1 Nf3 and 1 c4, which can appeal to a wide range of players. The usual move order is 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 Nf3 cxd4 4 Nxd4 e5!? 5 Nb5 d5 6 cxd5 Bc5 bringing us to a very sharp position. On this 60 mins, FIDE Senior Trainer Andrew Martin argues the case from the Black side, showing both classic Kasparov masterpieces and games from the present day and suggests that White's defensive task is not easy. This is a practical gambit which will help players at all levels to win more games. It is ideal for must-win situations with Black. It is a gambit that White cannot decline,as if he does, Black gets a good position instantly. White must take up the cudgels and fight!